I attended my second Social Media Meet-Up tonight, it was help down at the Black Diamond Digital Office Lounge. It was a good turn out with a few familiar faces and a few new faces. What more could you ask for? Well, I will tell you, new great ideas and I had several tonight, thanks to the insights of everyone at the table.

I see myself as a problem solver, but even more so a puzzle solver. By this I mean putting together pieces that others may not even see as a part of a puzzle. Or other times there isn’t a puzzle to be solved and I still try to force the pieces together. That was sort of the theme for today, determining what is a puzzle and what is not? This to me sounds a lot more productive than calling everything a problem.

Let me start with an example. One of my best friends put a message on my Facebook profile pleading with me to stop blogging. He is doesn’t see the point of posting insights up on a page and I think he still views it as an online “diary”. That is ok, blogging isn’t for everyone. However, as I read his comments busting on me, it dawned on me this is a great way to come up with a clear explaination that I can present to people who don’t see the value of blogging and are quick to dismiss it. So, I am going to start sending him different points of views about how blogging is a great way to connect with customers, as well as friends and family. After, all he posted on my Facebook profile so is already on board with Social Media. Do I dare tell him his Facebook profile is essentially a blog about him? Nah, he is a smart guy he will figure it out.

Puzzle One of the day created, solution imagined, all that is left is the execution. (Bryon, you are going to love this, cheers).

Second example or puzzle of the day, my brother and I had a great conversation about the new ways people are deciding to advertises when budgets get tight and a majority of companies are turning to digital media. We came to the conclusion that there are some fundemental shifts that are going on in our industry, however the rules still apply even if the mediums change. In a nutshell, is a great image produced with oil paint any less appealing to the viewer then if it was printed on a color laser printer? To your traditionalists, yes, to a consumer, no. Here is the thing though, conversations like this are where the lines of a puzzle needing to be solved and a lot of pieces available that sound like they might be good together cross. Can you come up with one solution to this? No, there are too many variables included.

And that brings me to my point of this post, it is important to keep an open mind to all new innovations, trends and tools at your disposal, but make sure someone else’s ideas don’t become extra pieces in the puzzle you are trying to solve. Identify early if there is a puzzle to be solved and use your experience to determine this, then use everything you can to best solve the puzzle for you.